


when lightning strikes

by horseGhost



Series: phicc phight 2020 [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, halfa wes au, thats all it is, thats it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:47:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23551024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horseGhost/pseuds/horseGhost
Summary: after getting caught in a fight against vortex, wes weston begins acting strange. it isn't long before danny has to train a new half-ghost in his powers, and hope he doesn't blow both their covers in the process. based on Browa123's prompt for phic phight!
Series: phicc phight 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685926
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34
Collections: Phic Phight!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Browa123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browa123/gifts).



If Danny wasn’t about to eat dirt, he would have been  _ really, really angry _ .

Vortex getting out of the Observants’ torture chamber was bad enough. Vortex getting out of the Observants’ torture chamber just as Danny was about to fall asleep? Unforgivable.

He crashed into the ground and into a roll-- or, at least, tried to. The dirt was so wet that he ended up getting stuck. He hissed, turned intangible to shake the extra mud off, and took off again.

He shielded his eyes against the torrential rain that didn’t even care to pass through his intangible form and darted towards the weather ghost again, letting his core summon frost up through his throat and into his mouth. He had gotten better managing his energy output now-- he just had to make this one count, and it would be over.

Vortex cackled when he saw Danny charging at him. “Is that your plan, little ghost boy?  _ Tackle _ me?” In his hand he formed something-- it was too rainy to see. “You don’t stand a chance against this, let alone  _ me _ !” Vortex let it fly, and not a moment later, Danny was nailed in the stomach with a hailstone the size of his head. Without meaning to, Danny let loose his wail, freezing every drop of rain it hit. Danny, however, fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and just barely keeping himself from transforming.  _ Shit. I don’t know if I can win this one! _

“Now, boy,” Vortex said, approaching. “you’ve been a spike in my side for far too long.”

“It’s,” Danny gasped, “ _ thorn. _ ”

“ _ WHATEVER! _ ” roared Vortex. “You will interfere in my plans no longer. Once I’m done with you, there will be no more Danny Phantom, ghost or boy!”

Danny froze. He tried to get up, but a sheet of rain hit him, pinning him in the mud. He couldn’t run. He was done for. He’d been close to dying before, sure, but… He wasn’t  _ ready _ to die. Especially not on a school night, at the hands of an evil storm cloud. He heard thunder rumble as Vortex gathered electricity in his hands.  _ Isn’t that a coincidence? _ Danny thought.  _ I’ll die the way I, uh, died. Lightning. _

For what seemed like an eternity, Vortex held the lightning in his hand. Then--

“ _ Hey! _ ”

Danny’s head shot up. He knew that voice.  _ Oh, no. You’ve gotta be kidding me. _

The lightning grew, in volume and luminosity.

“Don’t  _ touch _ him!” screamed Wes Weston above the downpour. “I don’t care if it kills me, but you’re  _ not _ killing him!”

Vortex, having heard Wes, turned, and as he did, aimed his electricity towards him as well. Danny watched in slow motion as a bolt arced out of the tiny sun he held and coursed towards Wes.

_ No. _

Wes stopped as he realized what was about to happen. His shoulders slackened and his eyes widened.

_ Please, no. _

Danny’s arm shot out. He fired an ectoblast at Wes in a last-ditch attempt to save him. It would hurt not unlike a hailstone to the stomach, but he would be fine.

_ Boom! _

Having caught his breath, Danny struggled to his feet. He pulled out the Fenton Thermos and caught Vortex in it. The downpour dwindled to a sprinkle. He relaxed.

And it was only then that he heard the screaming.

_ Crud, _ thought Danny.  _ Did I miss? _ He wiped away his exhaustion and bolted over to the source of the noise.

That is, until it stopped.

It didn’t die off like a normal scream, and it hadn’t been strangled out. It simply stopped, like a pausing movie. Danny stopped, too. “Wes? Where are you?”

Nothing. He looked around, trying to find him. “ _ Wes! _ Say something! Tell me you’re still alive!”

It was impossible. Trying to find him in the dark, wet mud was akin to finding the needle in a haystack.  _ Well, if that happens, _ he remembered his dad saying one time,  _ just burn the hay! _

He took a deep breath. “Wes! You’re right! I am Danny Fenton! You were right all along!”

…

Nothing. Danny’s breath hitched. “Oh, God. No. No, no, no. You can’t have…”

Motion caught the corner of his eye. He glanced over to see Wes, struggling to lift himself out of the mud. “Shit…”

Danny raced over. “Thank God you’re alive. I thought I didn’t save you in time. I would have--”

“Fenton?” Wes grabbed his glove. “What the hell?”

“Vortex,” Danny said. “He hit you with this, I don’t know, massive lightning ball. I tried to get you out of the way, but… Wes, I’m so sorry.”

Danny didn’t expect to be met with laughter. “Dude. I’m  _ fine, _ ” said Wes. “I’m still alive, still talking. I can still feel my legs.” He wiggled them as if to prove it to Danny. “You saved my ass.”

Danny sighed in relief. His shoulders dropped and he almost collapsed. “Why were you out here, anyway?”

“You’re practically in my backyard,” Wes said. “Could have gotten a couple excellent shots from here. Not to mention, you were getting your ass kicked. If I could do something, I told myself I would. And I did!”

“And nearly got yourself  _ killed _ !” Danny shot back.

“So that you  _ didn’t _ ,” Wes said. “No loss, right?”

Danny huffed. Wes was infuriatingly right again. “Does your dad know you’re out here?”

“It’s gotta be midnight by now,” Wes said. “He’s asleep.”

“You should have been, too,” Danny complained. “But no. You decided to risk your goddamn  _ life _ going up against a ghost that can  _ cause natural disasters, _ and I just barely saved your ass.”

“Well, you’re  _ welcome _ .” His eyes were half-lidded in that annoyed way they sometimes were, but tonight they were oddly striking. They almost seemed to  _ glow _ . 

Wes got up with a loud sucking sound and cringed at the sheer volume of mud that was on his clothes and hair. Absentmindedly Danny put a hand on his shoulder and turned him intangible. The mud slid off in a way that made Wes shudder.

Danny looked him in the eyes then. “Hey, Wes?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks.” Then he took off, leaving Wes alone in the dark.

The next few days were… strange, to say the least. Wes had laid off him being Danny Phantom, which was a nice surprise, but it was almost an unwelcome one compared to the way he was acting now. He’d been  _ avoiding _ Danny, and when Danny asked Wes’s friend Justin about it, he’d just shrugged.

“I think something’s on his mind,” he had said. “He just started acting that way, the night of the big storm. He said it just freaked him out ‘cause there was a literal ghost so close to his house, but I don’t know. He’s not, like,  _ scared _ of ghosts. Hell, he’s fine around you, and he thinks  _ you’re _ one.”

The night of the big storm? It could have been something normal-- realizing your own mortality is a sobering thing, Danny knew firsthand. But there was a feeling he couldn’t shake. That there was something more at play here than a near-death scare.

It was at lunch that things went from strange to downright  _ bizarre. _ He was in the middle of his Casper High slop that his ghost sense went off, freezing a bit of it to the spork. Tucker nodded, and Danny ducked into the hallway to go ghost.

For a few minutes, he didn’t notice anything suspicious. He looked around the halls, looking for the ghost. Then, a loud banging caught his attention. It was a ways away, in his favorite broom closet. He floated closer, then stopped at the door. Through it, he heard crashing and hissing, like a ghost’s fanged mouth trying to speak in a living language. “ _ Shi’… No… Go… away…!” _

Invisibly, Danny stepped through the door, trying to get a look at whatever was in there. When he saw it, his heart skipped a beat.

It was a ghost, tall and gangly, with blue skin riddled with freckles. Its hair was deep blue and seemed to float in the air, like water in microgravity.  _ Weird. I’ve never seen a ghost like that. Is it a new core type? _ It had all sorts of pointy ends. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth-- not vampiric fangs like Vlad’s, but dozens of long, thin teeth that resembled an anglerfish’s-- and each of its fingers tapered into a claw at least half an inch long. Its clothes were seemingly normal, a black dress shirt with the sleeves torn off, pale blue jeans, and sneakers. It seemed to be an average ghost, if it wasn’t for the way it was behaving.

It wasn’t talking in any sort of recognizable ghost speak. Danny ventured to guess it didn’t know how. That was weird-- most ghosts were created with ingrained knowledge of the language. It was staring at its hands, flipping them around, apparently  _ very  _ upset at them. It bared its fangs and seemed, overall, distressed.

Then it stopped and looked straight ahead. Straight at Danny.

“I know you’re th… ere.” it managed. “Ghos’.”

Danny made himself visible to the ghost. “You know, there  _ is _ an easier way to talk, right?” he said. “Ghost speak doesn’t exist for no reason.”

That was clearly a surprise to the blue ghost. “Wha’?”

“Uh…” Danny frowned. “How don’t you know ghost speak?”

It shrugged and didn’t say anything back. It was still staring Danny down, which was not a good look for somebody with one foot in a bucket. To its credit, its eyes were striking-- gold irises and a black sclera. If there was one word for them, it  _ would _ be “haunting”.

They stood like that for a while, until Danny sighed. “Well, you’re not going to cause any trouble, are you?” He had to get back to lunch.

The ghost shook its head. “No. No ts-trouble.”

“Alright,” Danny said. “Well, see ya.” With that, he turned to leave. Behind him, there was a splash. Danny whipped around on instinct, hoping the ghost had actually meant what it had said about “no trouble.”

And it had. Where the ghost had been just a moment before, there was nothing but a puddle of water on the floor.

“A ghost?” Tucker asked. “That’s super weird for a ghost to do.”

“Unless it’s you,” Sam amended. “You, we can explain.”

“I don’t get it,” Danny said. “It appeared in the broom closet, didn’t know ghost speak, and was clearly struggling with something. It’s not every day you stand with your foot in a bucket.”

Tucker snorted. “That kinda sounds like you when you were just figuring out your powers. You didn’t know ghost either. Everyone who met you had to transcribe.”

“And you sank through the floor at least once a week.”

Danny sighed. “Yeah.” He glanced up at Wes, who had just walked into the cafeteria. He was wearing his gym clothes, and his hair was sopping wet. “What happened to him? He have an accident or something?”

“Who showers for that long?” Tucker asked. “He didn’t even change.”

“Wait, wait.” Danny squinted. “I have gym before lunch. And I don’t have any classes with him. So why would he be showering? Or in his gym clothes?”

“Would you say that’s more weird or less weird than a ghost in a broom closet?” Sam fiddled with her spork.

“Hmm…” Danny was watching Wes again. As he sat down, Justin and a few of his basketball buddies made fun of him, but laid off quickly. He tried to pick up a pencil, then dropped it once, twice, four times. Then, his hand seemed to flicker, the light refracting off it oddly.

Danny considered walking up to him and asking him what the deal was, but that would cause too much of a scene. Wes was already hooked up on his case; Danny didn’t need to return the favor.

“Wanna go and ask him what the deal is?” asked Sam.  _ Never mind. _

Danny sighed and stood up. “Alright.”

Wes noticed them before they were halfway there. “What’s up?” he said as they approached.

“Funny,” replied Sam. “We were about to ask you the same thing.”

“You’ve been acting weird, dude,” Danny said. “What got you off my case?”

Wes shrugged. “Nobody believes me, anyway. Besides… If somebody did, wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

“Dangerous?”

“There are people that hate Danny Phantom. There are people that don’t care less what he does, just that he’s a ghost,” Wes explained. “If they thought  _ you _ were him, you wouldn’t be safe anywhere, would you?”

That stopped Danny dead in his tracks. “...Huh.”

“What?”

“Never thought I’d see the day you thought about it from my point of view.” Danny explained. 

Wes huffed. “Well, uh, I’m sorry for putting you in that situation in the first place.” He turned back to his food.

“So that was it, huh?” Sam said as they walked back to the table. “He just came around to your perspective?”

“I guess.” Danny frowned. “It just feels a little odd that it coincided with the Vortex fight.”

And that was the end of that… until after school.

Danny had been leaving the pier after another squabble with the Box Ghost. He had been up to his normal tricks, but this time he’d been able to pin Danny down with a considerable amount of packing tape, which made beating him that much more more tedious. But as he was leaving the pier, he noticed somebody sitting on the dock. It was Wes.

_ Doesn’t he live, like, two miles from here? _ Danny floated above him. He was just staring at the water, it seemed, until Danny noticed something  _ about _ the water he was staring at.

It wasn’t nearly as slow-moving as the waves around it-- in fact, it seemed to be spiraling into a whirlpool. Danny rendered himself invisible and drifted so that he was face-to-face with Wes-- then jolted.

Wes’s eyes weren’t their normal olive green. They were  _ silver.  _ And as he stared at the water, brow furrowed in concentration, a drop, then a stream, then a pool of the stuff rose into the air and around his cupped hands. Wes grinned in excitement, then his eyes flickered back to green and the water dropped onto him, drenching him once again. 

As he shook himself off, his demeanor changed. He began looking around, as if to ensure that nobody was watching him. When he was satisfied, he stood up and closed his eyes. Danny watched as a green ring of light encircled his feet, then gave way into--  _ Is that the Ghost Zone? _

Wes dropped into it with a short, cut-off shout of alarm.  _ Just like the one I heard fighting Vortex. _

Danny ducked below, hoping Wes hadn’t fallen  _ through _ the dock and into the water, like Danny had done once. There was nobody there. When he raised his head above the dock, there was a figure there. It looked to be about Wes’s height and build. When Danny’s eyes focused on it, he nearly didn't believe them.

It was the golden-eyed ghost from lunch that day. Somehow, in that fight with Vortex, Wes had become a halfa just like him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wes and danny have a blast . not literally just yet

To be honest, Wes hadn’t come running towards the fight because Danny was in danger. That came after the fact.

He’d come running because it was an  _ opportunity. _ If Vortex had won against Danny, he would be able to get real footage of him transforming, something he’d been going after for months now.

Of course, that all changed when he saw the lightning.

_ “I don’t care if it kills me, but you’re  _ not  _ killing him!” _ At the time, Wes didn’t realize how literal that statement had been.

Things do tend to change, don’t they?

Wes had been hit by the lightning first-- the feeling then was indescribable. It had made him feel like he was falling, burning, freezing, and exploding all at once. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.  _ Was this how Danny felt? _

Then the ecto-blast hit him, and he realized that no,  _ this _ was how Danny had felt in the portal accident.

He felt like every part of him was one by one turning to stone, then to jelly, then to ice. His body seemed to distort in ways that would have killed him if he wasn’t already dead. He opened his mouth to scream, then realized he had already been screaming for a long time now. He wanted a way out. He  _ needed  _ a way out of this.

And suddenly, he was out. Cold water surrounded him on all sides. Wes held his breath before realizing that he was still breathing. His hands went to his throat.  _ What the hell? _ The tissue there was soft and fluttered in and out gently.

He looked around him. He was deep underwater, it seemed. Creatures swam around him, giving him little more than a passing glance. They seemed to be obscured in darkness although light filtered down from above.

_ Above… _

The light was the same green as Danny’s eyes. Wes saw things moving up there, too. Purple, cyan, red, black… The colors were unearthly. Wes’s thoughts ticked back into action. He’d been hit by two ghosts in rapid succession… Maybe it’d ripped open a portal… and Wes had fallen into it.

He was in the Ghost Zone.

_ Oh, crud. Am I dead for real?  _ He let out the breath he had been holding and let it funnel towards the surface.  _ What now? _

What a shame, he thought, dying for a cause that nobody supported in the first place. Damn shame. What would his team think? He thought about them, at school, talking about him as if he had died years ago. He thought about his only friend, who would surely miss him. Not for long, but at least he would be one of the few who would. He thought about his dad, asleep tonight. When he woke up, though… He didn’t want to think about it.  _ God damn it. I don’t want to be dead! _

And just like that, he was in open air again, a gentle rain pattering on him. He breathed. In, out, in, out. “Shit…”  _ Alive. _

And there was Danny Phantom, sweeping him into a tight hug. “Thank God you’re alive…”

As much as Wes wished that would be the end of it, he woke up the next morning with one foot stuck  _ in _ the bedsheet. And that wasn’t the end, either. He began to disappear, his vision began to go grayscale at random, and he kept  _ dropping _ things.

Pencils, silverware, even his own clothes once or twice. He’d switched to using plastic cups instead of glasses for fear of getting shards all over the place.

The smart thing to do would be to swallow his pride and ask Danny for help. But Danny already denied that he was Phantom, even in private. Wes supposed it would be useless.

But it didn’t hurt to get off his back for a while. Especially now that  _ he _ had ghost powers. That got him thinking, though…

If he ever did reveal Danny, what would that mean for him? Would he be accepted? Would people call him a freak?

Suddenly Wes remembered something his father had mentioned. The Guys in White, a government-sanctioned team of ghost hunters who, allegedly, didn’t think ghosts had the same rights as humans. That had  _ bad _ written all over it. And if they caught wind that Danny was a ghost, too?

No. Wes wouldn’t pursue it anymore. He would leave Danny alone for good.

As the week went on, he didn’t think it would come to mean  _ stay away from him _ , but that was the way the cookie crumbled. At least, until the incident.

Wes had been on his way to lunch when his chest suddenly lurched-- something it had never done before. His hands appeared and disappeared in his swimming vision. He had to hide.

The broom closet was the closet. He bolted inside and shut the door tight.

In the darkness, he could focus much better on what was going on with him. His hands were paler than normal-- an incredible feat considering his complexion. Below his feet was a ring of green light, like a fissure in the ground.  _ Huh? _

The ring opened itself into a circle and dumped Wes inside. He hit water, the same water as last time. He took a good look at himself this time.  _ What is this? _

His nails, normally bitten to the quick, were long and clawed, and in this light, they almost looked blue. Maybe, Wes thought, they were.  _ Yikes. _ That lightning strike had really done something to him. He looked around.  _ How do I get out of here? _

He looked to the surface. Could he do it the old fashioned way-- climbing out of this Ghost Zone ocean and finding the Fenton Portal? It was worth a shot. Cautiously, he swam out of the depths and towards the surface, when--

Suddenly, he wasn’t anywhere near an ocean. He was back in the broom closet, with one foot now stuck in a janitorial bucket. But something was off. His vision was perfect in the dark, but it was almost completely monochrome, like it had been flashing before. The only things that had color were the leftover water in the bucket and his own person-- all varying shades of blue and green. “Wha--”

It was then Wes realized-- his mouth wasn’t the same, either. He ran his tongue along his teeth to find that each and every one was sharpened to a vicious point. That was a ghost thing. He was a ghost right now.

_ Oh, God. Am I a halfa, too? _

“Shit,” he said, or tried to. His teeth didn’t agree with the word, and he bit his tongue once or twice trying to spit it out. “No-- Go away!” He had to get out of this form before somebody found him. He remembered some ghosts like the former counselor being able to disguise themselves as alive, but seeing as his arms were blue, glowing, and clawed, he didn’t find the prospect very hopeful.

His eyes watered and his chest thrummed. He wasn’t alone.

Wes looked up and saw the vague outline of a human. Danny. He gritted his teeth. “I know you’re there,” he said. “Ghost.”

Danny didn’t waste a second dropping his cover. He was in full color-- maybe even more than that. Wes saw all his colors and more-- violet, cyan, pink here and there --but he also sensed a biting cold underneath his surface.. “You know, there is an easier way to talk?” said Danny in a language Wes didn’t know but immediately understood. It was uncanny how easily it flowed over his ears. “Ghost speak doesn’t exist for no reason.”

_ Ghost speak? _ “What?”

“Uh…” Danny frowned. “How don’t you know ghost speak?”

Wes didn’t have a good answer for that that didn’t involve revealing himself, something he was oddly not keen on doing. He just shrugged.

Danny sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, you’re not going to cause any trouble, are you?”

“No,” Wes said with a shake of his head. He looked down to see that the ring of green light had reappeared. “No trouble.”  _ That is, except for himself. _

“Alright,” said Danny. “Well, see ya.” That was the last Wes heard before he took the plunge into the Zone again.

_ That’s over with. Now, how do I turn back into myself again? _ Wes concentrated on his own living body. Red hair, green eyes, white freckled skin…

Another splash of water caught his attention. Wes was back in the closet again, and this time he was noticeably soaking. He remembered a trick Danny had shown him-- intangibility would drop any loose material to the floor, leaving a person dry and mostly clean. Wes considered it, but decided that going to lunch in his gym clothes was better than risking sinking through the floor.

After an interesting conversation at lunch, Wes headed to the pier after school. Something about the water was different now-- it wasn’t just a material, it resonated with his, well, ghost half. He sat on the dock, staring at a patch of it and wondering what was different. He thought for a moment-- it was three times now he had opened a portal to an ocean in the Ghost Zone, and water had had color when he’d inadvertently gone ghost. Clearly, his powers had something to do with water.

It was just the question of figuring out  _ what _ . Did it make him stronger? Did it have healing properties? Could he only use his ghost powers near water?

Wes focused on the water below him as he thought, and almost shouted when he saw it spiral into a whirlpool. Almost immediately, it stopped spinning and returned to its idle waves.

A thought hit him. If he had done that… He stared at the water and willed it to rise up. Slowly, it did, until he had a glob of water the size of a bowling ball floating above his hands.

He grinned. “Hah!” And just like that, the water dropped into his lap. His grin faded. But, while he was all wet…

He looked around, ensuring nobody was watching, and then went ghost. The portal opened much faster, and he resurfaced on the dock much faster, too.

He didn’t even need to look at himself to know it had worked-- the water glittered a vibrant blue against the grayscaled land. He felt even more attuned to it now. An idea struck him-- he took a step towards the end of the dock, then onto the water.

Really,  _ onto  _ it. He stood on it with a new perception of it he didn’t know he had-- it was solid under his feet, like wood, like he knew it would be. He raised his hand, and a column of water came with it. This was… this was incredible! He felt like laughing out loud.

Then--

“Hey, buddy,” Danny Phantom said, appearing in front of him again. “Did you read the schedule?”

Behind him, there was a rumble on the water. Wes turned and--

_ Oh, man, that ship is massive. _

Wes froze up as it approached, unsure of what to do. Behind him, Danny sighed. “I don’t usually do this for ghosts, but…” Wes felt a firm grip around his wrist. With an almost casual grace, he was lifted off the water and whisked away from the cargo ship.

Danny took him a ways away, near FentonWorks, before he finally let him go. Wes dropped towards the ground almost immediately.

Danny caught him and lifted him back up. “Float,” he instructed.  _ Float, _ Wes thought. Danny let go again. Wes didn’t fall this time. “There you go.”

Wes looked at Danny expectantly. He’d decided it was a bit more dignified than trying to talk.

“Looks like…” Danny licked his lips. “Looks like you’re new to being a ghost.”

Wes nodded. That wasn’t hard to deduce.

“Uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “If you ever want help, I live here.” He gestured to the flashing FentonWorks sign. Wes noticed that, somehow, that was in color, too. “I don’t do anything after school, except fight other ghosts, so hit me up whenever.”

Neither of them moved for a couple seconds. “...Do you know how to get home from where you are?” Danny asked.   
Wes nodded again. He decided to ask Danny something. “Do you know who I am?”

Danny’s eyes widened, just for a second. His mouth quirked into a smile. “Nope.” And with that, he disappeared into FentonWorks.

Wes decided he would fly home. He knew the general direction, and there were a couple landmarks to help him out. He would just have to figure out the  _ flight _ part of it. He focused on moving forward. It worked-- but he was pushed forward and tipped towards the ground dangerously.  _ Stop! Stop! _

He stopped, now horizontal, and huffed. So far, he wasn’t a fan of being half ghost. “It’s weird enough that I’m not falling- _ whoa! _ ”

As if he had jinxed himself, he fell towards the ground. In his panic, though, he managed to open another portal. He landed in the Ghost Zone with a splash, but didn’t stay long-- almost instantly, he was a kid again, sprawled out on the sidewalk, dripping wet. As he picked himself up and left, he thought he heard a snicker behind him. But when he turned, there was nobody.

A week passed, and Wes got a better grip on his powers. Now he could turn invisible on command, hover, and manipulate water like nobody’s business, even when he wasn’t in ghost form. The only things he hadn’t worked on were flying and intangibility-- they were far too risky to try without help. So, he was going to seek out help.

He went ghost-- something he could do without opening a portal now --walked to FentonWorks, and rang the doorbell.

He didn’t know why he hadn’t expected a gun to the head. 

“Coming right to the doorstep?” asked Jazz Fenton, hoisting the Fenton Bazooka on her shoulder a little higher.

“In peace,” Wes squeaked, throwing his hands in the air. The only problem was, he had also picked up ghost speak, and he had said that in ghost speak instead of English. She couldn’t understand him.

Jazz’s eyes narrowed. “Was that a threat?”

“Whoa, Jazz, lay off,” Danny said, hustling down the stairs towards them. “He said he doesn’t want any trouble.”

“Oh!” Her demeanor changed almost instantly. “Why’s it here, then?”

Danny shrugged. “Wanted to see me.” He looked at Wes. “That’s it, right?”

Wes nodded.

“Alright.” Danny headed out the door, taking Wes with him. “Come on. I, Danny Phantom, am about to teach you how to be a ghost!”

They headed to the park, expertly named Amity Park Park. There, Danny went ghost and laid out an area for them to work. “So, you’re the weirdest ghost I’ve ever seen,” he said by way of introduction. “You discovered your core element first instead of last.”

Wes looked at Danny, confused. “Core element?”

“You know, fire, electricity, plague,” Danny explained. “I’ve got ice. I can freeze things.” He froze the air around him and made three diamond-shaped crystals that glowed cyan. “And I can manipulate any ice that already does exist.” He flicked his hand, and the ice shot towards Wes.

Acting on instinct, Wes’s stance solidified. He concentrated on the crystals, and almost immediately they melted into a darker blue water and began to fall. He wrapped his thoughts around the beads of water, and they whipped around his head and flew the other way, towards Danny.

Danny dodged, the surprise evident on his face. “...That came out of nowhere.”

Wes scoffed. “Not  _ nowhere, _ ” he protested. “It’s been a week. I’ve been practicing.”

“You have?” Danny looked down. “I don’t remember seeing…”

“‘Course not,” Wes said. “You wouldn’t know me if you saw me.”

“I don’t know about that.”

Wes diverted the conversation. “What’s next on the lesson plan?”

“Intangibility. Gotta figure that out if you want to be even  _ remotely _ ghostly,” Danny answered. He shot over to Wes and clapped his hands on his shoulders. Wes felt a tingling sensation sweep over him, and his feet began to sink into the ground. He froze and pulled them out.

Danny let go. "Think you can do it on your own?"

Wes gritted his teeth. "I don't want to sink into the ground."

"I'll pull you out. Nothin' to worry about."

Wes huffed.  _ Nothing to worry about.  _ He let the intangibility ripple over his body. Once again he started sinking. But this time, he tried something different-- he willed them to stay above the ground. And to his relief, it worked. He stopped sinking. 

Danny smirked. "You're getting the hang of this faster than I thought." More ice crystals made themselves apparent around him. "Wanna test it out?"

Wes shivered. He sank a foot into the ground. Danny hoisted him out of it. "Guess not."

Next was flying. Wes was reluctant to come too far off the ground-- he didn't want to lose his balance like he had the first time. So Danny lifted him into the air. "Come on, dude. Learning by doing."

Wes wobbled but stayed upright. He waited for Danny's instructions.

"Don't think about gravity," Danny said. "That doesn't apply to you. You wanna move like you're, I don't know, in a video game." He did a flip then spun a circle or two around Wes. "See?"

Wes didn't see, but he gave it a try anyway. Immediately, he felt disoriented and lost his balance.  _ Like a video game _ ? Wes wasn't a nerd. He didn't play video games.

He was on the swim team, though. And wasn't flying a bit like gliding along a dive? Wes tried it out, streamlining himself and angling himself forward.

Immediately he shot straight, fast as a bullet and as freaked out as its target. Danny caught up with him, starry-eyed. "Man," he shouted over the wind. "That is the  _ coolest _ spectral tail I have ever seen!"

_ Spectral tail?  _ Wes looked down, and stopped dead in his tracks. Extending out of his hips, instead of two legs, was one long, deep blue tail with fins like a fish's. "Wha--!"

"You're like a mermaid ghost!" Danny exclaimed, stopped where he was and shouting back at Wes. Wes saw his tail-- it was featureless, the same color as his jumpsuit.

"I guess so," Wes said. His tail split back into jeans. "Is it 'cause of my core?"

"I don't know, I'm not a ghost scientist," Danny said.

"Your parents are."

"I know more than they do."

"I'll take your word for it," Wes said. "Are we done here?"

"Hmm…" Danny thought. "I want you to meet a ghost or two.

"A real one?"

"What, are you saying half-ghosts like us-- i mean, me, aren't real ghosts?"

"Uh…"

"Nah," Danny said, his smirk shifting into a sinister grin. "Let's track down Skulker."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theres more where that came from!!! i hate leaving stories open ended

**Author's Note:**

> halfa wes is my jam lol. just wait till he meets vlad


End file.
